Pirie Traditional Method Sparkling 2021
- 94
- $55
- Drink by: 2026-2036
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Named after one of the pioneers of the Tasmanian wine industry, Andrew Pirie, this wine has always ranked amongst Australia’s very best sparklers. It is now part of the Brown Brothers’ empire and should find an even wider audience. Handpicked fruit from the Kayena Vineyard in the Tamar Valley, the wine is an almost even split between Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, 51% Chardonnay and 49% Pinot Noir. The juice undergoes a cool fermentation in tank and 20% is left on lees in older French oak. The wine goes through a full malolactic fermentation and spends four years on lees. The colour is a pale silver gold. Very effervescent and energetic, the nose has a touch of toast with notes of lemons and apple, along with grapefruit pith and hints of hazelnut. There is a minerally, chalk backing, as well as an enticing saline character running the length. The wine is beautifully structured, elegant and intense, with good focus and a long lingering finish. This is a cracking Aussie sparkler and can be enjoyed over the next decade.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
